Magnus Carlsen sacrificed 3 pawns to beat Alexander Naumann in Round 2 of the European Club Cup, while in Round 3 we saw the top teams facing tough opposition for the first time. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and his team were both on the edge of disaster before escaping with a draw. Round 4 will see major clashes, including Anand-Mamedyarov and Carlsen-Harikrishna.
Magnus Carlsen took on Alexander Naumann | photo: Fiona Steil-Antoni, ECC2022
The first couple of rounds of the European Club Cup aren’t usually a problem for the top teams, and Round 2 was again full of crushing victories in the Open section. The highlight, however, was Magnus Carlsen’s game for his club Offerspill against Solingen. The name of his opponent alone made the game stand out!
The chess was better, however, with Magnus playing the Scotch and seemingly getting only a difficult endgame.
After 12…Qxe5 13.a3 Qxe4 14.Nxe4 Na6 he was a pawn down, but as Magnus began to expand with 15.b4 it became clear the black pieces on the queenside would struggle to develop.
Alexander Naumann couldn’t solve that problem, but picking up a second pawn was a decent decision. The third, however, would be fatal…
The f4-pawn had in fact only been getting in Magnus’ way, and now after 23.Re2! Bb7 24.Rf1! the pressure exerted by the b2-bishop and f1-rook on the black kingside was huge, with the knight on c3 ready to jump to either d5 or e4.
Six moves later and it was all over.
The knight on f6 can’t be saved, and White can pick up the black pawns at will. A fine game, even if it’s unlikely Magnus will repeat the opening experiment.
The tournament really got going in Round 3, when top teams were frustrated for the 1st time. 3rd seeds Asnieres Le Grand Echiquier from France almost crashed to defeat against the 11th seeds.
A draw was a great result for Maxime Vachier-Lagrave’s team, considering he was almost beaten by Jergus Pechac.
After 38.Rh7 or 38.Rg7 the passed h-pawn is too strong, but after 38.Rf1? Rh6! MVL managed to escape.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Andrey Esipenko were both on the verge of defeat | photo: Fiona Steil-Antoni, ECC2022
The match ended with high drama, since in a time scramble Tamas Banusz took a draw by repetition when it turns out he could have won by switching to threatening checkmate with Rf8-Rf2.
It was understandable, however, since one miscalculation and Andrey could also have won the game and the match for his team.
Another French team, 5th seeds Clichy-Echecs-92, was also held to a draw, against the 13th seeds.
The match was notable for Emre Can scoring one of the most crushing wins you’ll witness at the top level.
The top seeds Superbet also had an intense match, with Ukraine’s Kirill Shevchenko defeating Richard Rapport in a tricky endgame. An impressive result, considering he noted his preparation ended on move 2! (the game began 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3 g6, with Kirill playing Black)
Anand and Rapport had tough games against Mamedov and Shevchenko | photo: Fiona Steil-Antoni, ECC2022
The other players on the Vugar Gashimov team are Rauf Mamedov and young Azeri players. That affected Rauf’s decision to play the Scotch against none other than Vishy Anand.
It was ridiculous, because at night I was thinking what to play, because I know Anand is Anand! First of all, I want to play the Berlin, but then I say no, no quick draw, it’s not good in this competition because we have youngsters, so I should press.
A wild-looking position arose.
Here 11.c3 was met by 11…Re8, with Rauf explaining:
And at the moment I have an idea to play this line, and a very ridiculous moment, when I check this and he plays 11…Re8. I was sure he’d play Re8, because Kramnik played Re8 against Kovalev, and I didn’t check after. I only know one move, but [12.cxd4] 12…Qd4 the engine didn’t give, and maybe somewhere I should not exchange the queens because he has this h6-g5… I missed this.
The game briefly heated up, but then fizzled out into a draw.
The top seeds were defeated in the Women's section | photo: Fiona Steil-Antoni, ECC2022
Meanwhile in the women’s section there were already big clashes in Round 3, with 3rd seeds Pamhagen defeating the favourites Cercle d’Echecs de Monte-Carlo, with wins for Anna Ushenina over another former World Champion, Antoaneta Stefanova, and for Aleksandra Maltsevskaya over Elisabeth Paehtz.
Round 4 features big clashes in the Open section too, with some of the favourites meeting.
The games start at 14:15 CEST (with a 15-minute anti-cheating delay), which is 8.15am ET and 17:45 IST. Follow all the action live with commentary from Peter Svidler, Laurent Fressinet and Lawrence Trent: Open | Women
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